future cre8tors – California’s Creative Economy

Today launches a new section of cre8tivity lab – future cre8tors. This section will focus on creative education and careers.

First up is a quick post to relate this story – the release of the annual study conducted by Otis College of Art & Design in Los Angeles. The Otis Report On The Creative Economy has focused its efforts on southern California for a number of years. This year, however, the entire state was included in the report and the findings are interesting (if not exactly surprising).

Though the industries that comprise the creative economy are not legally defined, the report includes data from various industries, from automotive design to fashion, to gaming and entertainment. It finds that these combined industries contributed $155,000,000,000.00 to California’s economy and accounts for nearly 8% of the states revenue.

These figures speak to the demand in this sector and hint at potential growth. That’s certainly the hope by those generating this report; to statistically detail that creative jobs are important to the state. Policymakers, citing reports like this one, can then make the business case for arts and design when preserving or (heaven forbid) increasing funding for arts education. Perhaps it can even be used to lure creative businesses to the state with the promise of a skilled creative workforce.